Extreme heatwaves continue to grip US as millions under heat and air quality alerts – as it happened

Here is a roundup of the day’s key events:

• People who are 65 years or older are more prone to heat-related health problems, the CDC said. According to the CDC, older adults do not adjust as well as young people to sudden changes in temperature. Additionally, they are more likely to have a chronic medical condition that changes normal body responses to heat.

• New York governor Kathy Hochul said that the poor air quality covering New York is “not as bad as it was three weeks ago when the skies were orange but there are still significant public health risks.” Hochul listed several regions most impacted by the poor quality as a result of smoke drifting from Canada’s wildfires into the US, including western New York, central New York, and the Adirondacks.

• Mexican health authorities say there have been at least 112 heat-related deaths so far this year, acknowledging for the first time the deadliness of a recent heatwave that the president previously dismissed as an invention of alarmist journalists. The report, released late Wednesday, also shows a significant spike in heat-related fatalities in the last two weeks. So far this year, the overall heat-related deaths are almost triple the figures in 2022.

• A new survey by the Society of Actuaries (SOA) Research Institute has found that 53% of Americans reported that extreme weather events – including hurricanes, tornadoes, heatwaves, wildfires and flooding – have adversely affected their health. Moreover, more than half of the respondents reported negative impacts on their property (51%), communities (58%) and feelings of general safety (65%) from extreme weather events.

• The city of Pittsburgh has postponed its Set It Off to Summer event which was supposed to celebrate the extended hours of operation at the city’s recreational centers. “Due to the ongoing Code Red Air Quality, we have decided to postpone our Set it Off to Summer event until July 13, 2023,” the city announced on Twitter.

• The US Democratic representative Colin Allred of Texas hit back against Republicans after Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill that rescinded water breaks despite a record-breaking heatwave spreading the state. “The current heat wave has Texas set to be hotter than 99% of the world this week. Yet, the radical Republicans running our state are denying workers water breaks in this heat,” Allred said.

• As of Thursday morning, three major cities in the US were ranked as the top three places in the world with the worst air quality. According to the air tracking service IQAir, Chicago, Detroit and Washington DC topped air quality index charts with all three cities’ air being classified as “unhealthy”.

That’s it from me, Maya Yang, as we wrap up the blog for today. Thank you for following along.

cover photo:A lifeguard stands watch along the lakefront as wildfire smoke clouds the skyline in Chicago, Illinois. Photograph: Scott Olson/Getty Images